He Understands
by Brooks A. Harris
Jesus, the Son of God, is also called "Immanuel" which means "with us (is) God". He is God who came to earth to live as a human from birth to death, to live a human life, to experience life as a human with human emotions, feelings, and thoughts. We do not know very much about what happened to Jesus before He was 30 years old, except that he grew up as a carpenter with a carpenter father and he had younger brothers and sisters. Therefore we can figure that he knows what it is like to deal with younger siblings and the responsibilities of being an older brother and a working carpenter.
Once He started His ministry we learned a lot about His experiences. First of all after He was baptized by John the Baptist, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, He spent forty days in the wilderness by Himself and he fasted for this forty days. Therefore He knows what it is like to be alone and hungry. He was also tempted over and over by the devil during this time. Although He did not give into these temptations, He knows what it is like to be tempted during difficult times.
During His ministry He encountered many people who were sick, diseased, blind, paralyzed, and possessed by demons. He experienced the pain, suffering, disappointment, sorrow, embarrassment, fear, loneliness, etc. of these people and of their loved ones who cared for them. Even though He was able to completely heal these people, He understood their feelings. He even experienced the death of a close friend He loved, Lazarus, and wept with close relatives.
The Bible reports that Jesus worked long hours many days with people constantly asking Him to do things for them. He was constantly traveling by foot from town to town, preaching, teaching and healing. He was often very tired by the end of the day, therefore He knows what it is like to work hard, respond to constant demands by the public, and be worn out at the end of the day, day after day.
In Jesus’s last week before His death, He experienced the emotion of joy, peace and adoration on Palm Sunday, but soon after, He became angry at the money changers for improperly using the temple and He overturned their tables. He showed compassion and love for His disciples at the last supper. He experienced betrayal and abandonment and denial by His disciples. He was falsely accused, tried and sentenced for a crime He did not commit. He was mocked and verbally abused. He was stripped naked, spat on and humiliated. Lastly He was severely beaten and brutally flogged nearly to death, then forced to carry His own cross for awhile, which He was later nailed to through His hands and feet while His head bled from the thorn crown that was forced onto His head. While on the cross Jesus experienced further humiliation, ridicule, mocking, and abandonment.
Jesus was without sin, having lived a sinless life, but all the sins of all people were placed on Him while He was on the cross, so He could become the ultimate sacrifice. Can you imagine the agony of the weight of all the sin in the world being placed on you all at one time? He did not deserve to suffer and die as He did, but He willingly chose to suffer and die for us to pay the penalty for our sins. It is we sinners who deserved to die and go to hell as punishment for our sins. Jesus died for us so we could be redeemed of our sins and could join Him in everlasting life.
Soon after He died He even visited hell before His resurrection back to life. When Jesus died His disciples were disappointed in Him for not being the kind of savior they had expected. They expected Jesus to free them from the harsh Roman rule. They had no idea yet what kind of awesome savior He really was. They had also doubted His promises to return from the dead until they finally saw Him again in His new, glorious, everlasting, perfect body. So even though Jesus had spent three and one half years teaching His disciples, they still had not trusted His word. Through this I would imagine that Jesus could have experienced the feelings of failure, discouragement, disappointment, and frustration, but being that He was God, I am sure He understood and had compassion for them.
Jesus loves you and wants you to develop a strong personal relationship with Him. Talk to Him through prayer; tell Him your concerns - He will understand. Remember though that when you ask Jesus to help you with a problem, He will always hear you but you may not get what you want from Jesus. He knows what is best for us so we must ask that His will be done and that we learn to trust Him. Many Christians suffer pain and hardships every day of their lives, but still have learned to love and trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They look forward to Jesus’s promise of everlasting life free of pain, suffering, and sorrow.
So through the life He lived in human form here on earth, we can see that He experienced many problems, emotions, and much suffering, but this is not all. Although He was fully human, He was also and still is fully God, therefore He knows what God knows. God sees everything, hears everything, knows everything. Since Jesus is God, He has seen and experienced everything that has ever happened to every person who has ever lived. Therefore Jesus could say "Been There - Done That." He knows what it is like to be you and He knows how you feel. He understands your suffering, your confusion, your disappointment, your guilt, your shame, your anger, your heartache, your loneliness, your frustration, your doubt, your desires, etc. He knows that your existence here in this lifetime is brief compared to your eternal life to come, so your suffering now is only for a moment. Life may seem difficult and unfair at times and it is hard for us to understand why we must suffer and endure hardships, but all things work for good when God is in charge of our life. So trust Jesus and remember - He understands.
